Let’s just start this by saying that periods are totally natural, totally cool, and totally necessary. We may be on the way to ending period stigma, but we certainly aren’t there yet, especially because most of us can barely talk about pads, tampons, or the works without feeling some kind of embarrassment. Although that may be a problem, there are bigger problems at play, too.

Rachel was working the event, and even though she repeatedly asked to go to the bathroom, she was told it was too busy to leave her booth. She didn’t make it in time to change her tampon, and asked for clean tights and underwear. She also contacted her talent rep to explain what happened.

Sadly, Hyundai told her to take the night off, even after she insisted she wanted to stay because she was being paid by the hour. The next day, she was told by her talent rep that Hyundai didn’t want to work with her anymore.

“I’m not going to let people treat women this way,” she added. “It’s a natural thing that we have, our periods, and it’s not like I want special treatment because of it. I just want to be respected as a human and to be able to go to the restroom. And not to be considered a bad employee because I needed to use the bathroom.”

Periods are natural and normal, and we need more companies to recognize that. We hope Hyundai sees the error of their ways, and that they realize that they too wouldn’t be here without women who bleed.